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Friday, February 15, 2019

42 MORE TV WESTERNS

42 MORE TV WESTERNS

NOTES FROM THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR

Having
recently finished co-writing and editing 52
Weeks • 52 TV Westerns, I’m finding it hard to let go. Trying to limit the
collection to 52 TV Westerns was near
impossible. I found it much harder than with the first two collections, 52 Weeks • 52 Western Novels and 52 Weeks • 52 Western Movies.

With 52 Weeks • 52 TV Westerns, I agonized
over some of the shows that didn't make the cut. However, the 52 Westerns collections are not supposed
to be a best of list. They are
designed to be a subjective overview with writers sharing their personal
connection or feelings about whatever book, movie, or TV show they are writing
about. It's this emotional connection that makes the 52 Weeks • 52 Westerns books different—and IMHO better—than other
related books on the subjects.

However,
whenever contributing editors, Scott Harris, Rob Word, and myself felt we had
finalized the list of 52 TV Westers, one or the other of us would have an emergency
epiphany...

”What do you mean nobody is writing up The
Longer Ranger? It’s too important not to be included”...”We had someone
covering The Wild Wild West, right? How come it’s not on the list? It has to be
on the list”...”Where’s The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp? Hugh O’Brian was
fantastic as Earp. We can’t not include it”...

And on, and on,
and on.

With the
sheer number of popular TV Westerns broadcast into our homes each week during
the 50s and ‘60s, it was inevitable some of our favorites—and yours—would not
be included. Some of the TV Westerns we did choose were not as important or popular as some of those we didn’t include, but this is due to the
nature of the 52 Weeks • 52 Westerns
series. As contributing editors, our goal was to go beyond rounding up the
usual owlhoots. Instead, we want the included choices to be and eclectic mix of
the popular and the obscure, with each choice meaning something special to our
posse of contributors. Our hope is TV Western fans will find out something new
about the shows they love, and casual fans will find intriguing Westerns
they’ve never seen, but can now view on DVD.

In an attempt
to address some of the TV Westerns not covered in 52 Weeks • 52 TV Westerns (or at least mollify my desire to give
these additional shows recognition), I’ve put together this additional list of TV
Westerns I wish we’d had the room to include.

BARBARY COAST (1975)

The
adventures of 19th century government agent Jeff Cable (William Shatner), and
his pal, conman and gambler Cash—Cash makes no enemies—Conover (Doug McClure).
In their battle against criminals and foreign spies, Cable and Conover operated
out of the Golden Gate Saloon and Casino, which is owned by Cash and located on
San Francisco's notorious Barbary Coast.

BAT MASTERSON (1958)

With his
derby hat, his cane, and his fancy duds, famous lawman Bat Masterson (Gene
Barry) uses his wits and his cane more often than his gun to defend the
unjustly accused.

THE BIG VALLEY (1965)

In the 1870s,
Victoria Barkley (Barbara Stanwyck) rules the family ranch located in
California's San Joaquin Valley. Bank robbers, horse thieves, revolutionaries,
and land grabbers keep the legitimate and illegitimate family members in the
saddle.

BLACK SADDLE (1959)

Gunfighter Clay
Culhane (Peter Brecks) hangs up his guns and becomes a lawyer after his
brothers are killed in a shootout. Culhane was also seriously injured in the
gunfight, but survived. Trying to live a quieter life, Culhane’s reputation as
a gunman constantly comes back to haunt him.

BRANDED (1965)

Unjustly
accused of cowardice, cavalry captain Jason McCord (Chuck Conners) is
court-martialed and drummed out of the Army. Trying to prove he isn’t a
coward—and keep the secret of why he was the only survivor of the battle of
Bitter Creek—McCord wanders the West looking for trouble.

BROKEN ARROW (1956)

A
fictionalized account of the historical relationship between Indian agent Tom
Jeffords (John Lupton) and the Chiricahua Apache chief Cochise (Michael Ansara),
Broken Arrow was one of the few Westerns to portray Native Americans in a
positive light.

BRONCO (1958)

Former
Confederate officer Bronco Layne (Ty Hardin) drifts through the Wild West
signing on for odd cowboy-type jobs and into weekly encounters with the likes Wild
Bill Hickok, Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Theodore Roosevelt, Belle Starr, Cole
Younger, and John Wesley Hardin.

THE CALIFORNIANS (1957)

During the
gold rush on the 1850s, newly arrived Mathew Wayne (Richard Coogan) takes the
job as sheriff and organizes the police force in an attempt to maintain law and
order in the wide open city. Along the way he trades barbs with an attorney
names Pitt and becomes infatuated with the young widow Fanzler.

THE CHISHOLMS (1979)

Beginning as
a TV mini-series and transitioning into weekly episodes, The Chisholms was developed
by Evan Hunter—better known as Ed McBain—from his own novels. Cheated out of their
land in Virginia, the Chisholms head West in 1844 encountering rough conditions,
hostile Indians, and family upheaval. Hadley Chisholm (Robert Preston) was the
patriarch who holds the family together with the help of his wife Minerva (Rosemary
Harris).

COLT .45 (1957)

Using his
cover as a gun salesman, Christopher Colt (Wayde Preston) is a government Agent
tracking down notorious bad guys. Sam Colt Jr. (Donald May), Christopher’s
cousin, took over the reins for several episodes. Christopher and Sam
eventually worked together as The Colt Cousins until the end of the series. The
show was loosely based on the film starring Randolph Scott.

DESTRY (1964)

Harrison Destry
(John Gavin) is the son of legendary lawman Tom Destry (the character from the
film Destry Rides Again starring Jimmy Stewart). A sheriff himself until he was
framed and sent to prison, Destry now roams the West searching for the men who
set him up. Destry finds himself in numerous comedic situations as he goes to
great lengths to avoid violence despite always running into trouble. As star
John Gavin put it, "To Destry, a hero is a man who thinks slower than a
coward. While his father died with his boots on, Destry believes it is better
to live with his boots on.”

FRONTIER CIRCUS (1961)

Colonel Kasey
Thompson (Chill Wills) and Ben Travis (John Derek) own a one-ring traveling
circus entertaining audiences throughout the 1880’s West. Shot in black and
white two years after Bonanza brought color westerns to television, Frontier
Circus simply fell through the cracks. However it’s worth viewing on DVD as
many of the stories were non-traditional Westerns because of the circus
background.

THE GENE AUTRY SHOW (1950)

One of the
most recognizable of the original singing cowboys, Autry moved his show from
radio to TV with relative easy. Lighthearted, with plots that were much about
nothing, Autry was definitely family entertainment. My favorite Autry outing
however was his debut in 1935, playing himself in the whacky serial film
Phantom Empire. Autry is a singing cowboy who stumbles upon an ancient
subterranean civilization living beneath his own ranch. It only gets crazier
from there.

THE GUNS OF WILL SONNETT (1967)

Ex-cavalry
scout and gunfighter Will Sonnett (Walter Brennan) and his grandson, Jeff (Deke
Rambo), search the West for Will's son, and Jeff's father, Jim Sonnett (Jason
Evers)—a former lawman turned gunslinger who is on the run. There is a lot of
family angst amongst the gunsmoke.

GUNSLINGER (1961)

Little more
than a twelve episode blip, the adventures of Cord (Tony Young), a young
gunfighter working undercover for the local army garrison commander trying to
keep peace in the territory, should have had a longer run. Cord's dark,
brooding presence made him a heartthrob for female viewers, but did little to
make up for the standard plots and plodding writing. The show, however, had two
redeeming factors. The first was the theme sung by Western music icon Frankie
Lane. Second was the dark nature of the pilot with Cord sent to bring in a war
criminal from the American Civil War—a Confederate army doctor who performed
medical experiments on the Union POWs at the infamous Andersonville prison
camp. This was dangerous and exciting territory, but unfortunately, the
following episodes were turned into trite horse operas.

HELL ON WHEELS (2011)

Former
soldier and slaveholder, Cullen Bohannon (Anson Mount), is tracking a renegade
band of Union soldiers who murdered his wife. His quest for vengeance
ultimately brings him into the heart of the huge project of building the transcontinental
railroad. This recidivist Western is an amazing blend of writing, acting,
costuming, set dressing, and cinematography. It is also violent, bloody, harsh,
and sometimes hard to watch despite its brilliance, or perhaps because of it.

HONDO (1967)

Based on the
1953 John Wayne film, which itself was based on an early Louis L’Amour novel,
Hondo Lane (Ralph Taeger) is an ex-Confederate cavalry officer who takes an
Indian bride, only to see her killed in a massacre perpetuated by U.S. Army
troops. Accompanied by his dog, Sam, Hondo wanders the West in a quest protect
the remaining Indians from further trouble with the Army. Buffalo Baker (Noah
Beery, Jr.) often turns up as Hondo's sidekick. The first two episodes were combine
as Hondo and the Apaches, a feature
film distributed internationally.

HOPALONG CASSIDY (1959)

Created in
1904 by Clarence E. Mulford in a series of short stories, Hopalong Cassidy
became a series of successful movies starring William Boyd, who changed
Mulford’s original character to suit his own personality. When the studio moved
on to other projects, Boyd risked every penny he had to buy the rights to his
Hopalong films. He then turned around and sold the films to the fledgling NBC
network, who broadcast them as edited episodes—making Hopalong Cassidy the
first TV Western. The edited films were successful enough for NBC to order an
original series of Hopalong adventures with William Boyd as the star. Even
though he was dressed all in black, Hopalong was still a white knight riding
his white charger, Topper, doing good across the West. Between the movies, the
TV show, and the incredible merchandizing, Boyd became wildly rich.

HOW THE WEST WAS WON (1976)

Based loosely
on a 1962 movie of the same name, How the
West Was Won started its television run in 1976 with a two hour made-for-TV
movie entitled The Macahans. The TV
movie acted as a pilot for a 1977 mini-series, which ran under the original
title, How the West Was Won. The
successful mini-series spawned a regular How
the West Was Won weekly series in 1978. While popular in the U.S., the
series became hugely successful in Europe. When broadcast in Sweden, in
particular, it established a devoted, if not fanatical following.

When Zebulon
Macahan (James Arness), an irascible mountain man, trapper/trader, and scout
working for the U.S. Army in the Indian Territories, returns to check on his family
in Manassas, Virginia, he finds them preparing to head West to escape the
ravages of the brewing Civil War. Because of his experience, Zeb finds himself
blazing the trail with the help of his nephew Luke (Bruce Boxleitner) on the
way to Oregon. They run into many setbacks along the way, forcing them to delay
their travels many times as they face hostile Indians, crazed mountain men, and
more trouble than any family should have to face.

In 1978, a
nearly 400-page paperback novelization of the show’s early episodes was written
by the prolific and versatile Lou Cameron. Sharing the title of the series, Cameron’s
novelization is often confused with the novelization of the original 1962
feature film, which has the same title, but was adapted and expanded by Louis
L'Amour.

IRON HORSE (1966)

In the 1880s,
when Ben Calhoun (Dale Robertson) wins the half-completed Buffalo Pass,
Scalplock and Defiance Line railroad in a poker game, he finds he has to fight
Indians, bankers, and outlaws to complete the line. The show had a subtle underlying
message of how industrial free enterprise built America. It also had a not so
subtle message, especially in the first season, as Calhoon clearly cavorted
with anything in skirts, including the female guest stars. There were no
bedroom scenes, but viewers knew exactly what was going on behind closed
doors—which was scandalous for a mid-60s TV show. The series pilot was released
as the film Scalplock.

JOHNNY RINGO (1959)

The character
of Johnny Ringo (Don Durant) was loosely based on the life of the notorious
gunfighter and outlaw known as John Peters Ringo or John B. Ringgold, who
tangled with Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Buckskin Franklin Leslie. Since it
was unthinkable to have a bad guy as the hero of a Western, TV’s Johnny Ringo
has turned his back on his owlhoot past and set aside his gunfighting ways to
become the young sheriff of Velardi in the Arizona Territory. Like many other
Western heroes, Johnny Ringo had a gimmick gun, a custom-built LeMat revolver.
The LeMat featured an auxiliary shotgun barrel under its primary barrel. Many
episodes found Ringo getting into scrapes where the final round in the shotgun
barrel was the deciding factor.

LARAMIE (1959)

When their father
is murdered by a greedy land seeker, the two Sherman brothers, Slim (John Smith)
and fourteen year old Andy (Robert Crawford, Jr.), link up with drifter Jess
Harper (Robert Fuller) to run a stagecoach stop for the Great Central Overland
Mail Company. The money the Shermans make from running the stage stop they use
to hang on to their father’s ranch. Interestingly, the show often showed the
Shermans and the family cook Jonesy (Hoagy Carmichael) working on the ranch—chopping
wood, cooked, washing dishes and cloths, feeding chickens, repairing roofs, and
the many other chores necessary to run a ranch. The relationship between the
Shermans and grim drifter Jess Harper is touchy and tenuous, but eventually
moves toward trust and true friendship. By season three most of the characters
and the interesting storylines that made the series different from other TV
Westerns had been tossed in favor of focusing on Slim Sherman and Jess Harper
and standard Western tropes.

THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF WYATT EARP
(1955)

Playing fast
and loose with historical facts, Wyatt Earp (Hugh O’Brian) starts out as the deputy
town marshal of Ellsworth, Kansas. However, after only four episodes, he moves
on to becomes town marshal in Wichita, Kansas. In the season, Wyatt moves on
again when he is hired as assistant city marshal of Dodge City, all the time
keeping the peace with his Buntline
Special—a Colt revolver with a 12” barrel. Wyatt was portrayed as an
upstanding hero, a man reluctant to kill until forced into a gunfight. This was
far from the reality of the real life Wyatt Earp’s character. However, Hugh
O’Brian absolutely embodied the TV show character, playing Earp with a cold
nobility, a reserve, and a slightly dark edge. TV’s Earp was a well-honed knife
blade cutting to the heart of every storyline.

MAKENZIE’S RAIDERS (1958)

Colonel
Mackenzie (Richard Carlson), commander of the 4th Cavalry Regiment at Fort
Clark located in southwest Texas, receives secret orders from U.S. President
Ulysses S. Grant and Secretary of War William W. Belknap to stop bandits from
crossing the Rio Grande into the United States or escaping justice by fleeing
into Mexico.

Based on the
book The Mackenzie Raid, the
Colonel’s orders went even further. His Cavalry unit was expected to clean up the Southwest, making it a fit
place for Americans to live. They were to wipe out renegades, outlaws, and
murderers. If necessary, they were expected to cross the Rio Grande in pursuit
of dangerous outlaws, knowing if they were captured they would be hung by the very
outlaws they pursued, or if discovered they would be court martial by the
United States Army.

A MAN CALLED SHENANDOAH (1965)

A man (Robert
Horton) is shot and left for dead. He is found and revived by two buffalo
hunters who take him to town hoping he has a bounty on his head. According to
the sheriff, however, the man is not on any wanted posters, but the bigger
problem is the man has no recollection of his past. Calling himself Shenandoah,
a name given to him by the doctor who treats him, he set off across the West in
search of his identity and to find out who . Eventually, He learns he had been
a Union officer during the American Civil War—possibly being the only survivor
of a massacre—is an expert card player, and might have been married, but he can
uncover no definitive answers. The big moral hits in the final episode: It's not always important who you are; but it's
always important what you are. Star Robert Horton Sang the show’s theme
song after he wrote new lyrics to the music of American folk tune Oh, Shenandoah.

THE NINE LIVES OF ELFEGO BACA (1958)

Elfego Baca (Robert Loggia) was a real-life
Mexican American lawman in the late 1800s brought to life on television in ten
episodes of Walt Disney Presents. Elfego Baca was an attorney and reluctant
lawman who preferred to fight outlaws using his brains rather than his
guns.In 1962 a number of episodes were
compiled and released as a movie under the title Six Gun Law. In the series, Elfego was often referred to as El
Gato—the cat. Star Robert Loggia, of course, would later become the cat-burglar
known as T.H.E. Cat.

OUTLAWS (1960)

U.S. Marshal
Frank Caine (Barton MacLane) and his young deputies (Don Collier / Bruce
Yarnell) take on bandit gangs, gunmen, and robbers as they bring justice to the
lawless Oklahoma Badlands. The series brought an interesting twist to the TV
Western. In a Wild West take on Crime and Punishment, each episode was told almost
exclusively from the point of view of the Outlaws,
not the lawmen. U.S. Marshal Caine and his posse were a constant threating
presence to the men they were chasing—always in the distance, but always
coming. In some episodes, the outlaws were presented in such an empathetic way
viewers found themselves rooting for them to get away. The episodes usually
ended in one of two ways, the traditional lawman finally catches the outlaw, or
more interestingly, the outlaw causes his own downfall through his character
flaws.

PARADISE (1988)

With a name
change to The Guns Of Paradise in
season three, this family oriented TV Western saw wrongly accused gunslinger
Ethan Cord (Lee Horsley) confronted with raising his dead sister's four children.
When he tries to settle his new found family in the town of Paradise, Cord’s
gunfighter past (as it always does) continues to put him—and his sister’s
children—in danger. Some episodes tried for a more human element, such as when
Paradise is infested with the small pox. Like a number of other TV Westerns, Paradise found an enthusiastic and loyal
audience in Scandinavian and Europe.

PONY EXPRESS (1959)

Wanted...Young expert horsemen, good
moral character, ready to endure severe hardships to carry the mail 2000 miles
between St. Joe and Sacramento against the impossible barriers of terrain,
weather, Indians...and time.
Set in 1860, the opening narration for each episode of Pony Express provided the basic storyline. The majority of episodes
featured Brett Clark (Grant Sullivan) as a roving investigator for the Central
Overland Express Company—better known as the Pony Express—and Donovan (Don
Dorrell), a young Pony Express rider, solving the many problems of delivering
the mail.

QUEEN OF SWORDS

In 1817, a
young Spanish aristocrat, Tessa Alvarado (Tessie Marie Santiago), returns to
Spanish California after the death of her father and finds her home in ruins,
her father's manservant reduced to stealing. The town where she was born is run
by a militaristic governor who abuses his power, resulting in the miscarriage
of justice and the poor living conditions of his subjects. Upset about the
state of her birthplace and the murder of her father, Tessa's path is revealed
to her in a mysterious dream where her father comes to her and talks of his
murder, his hidden gold, and of his "Avenging Angel." She will take
up arms to protect the people from the town's governor and to avenge her
father's death. Tessa will do this in disguise behind a mask, becoming that
"Avenging Angel," The Queen of Swords. As the Queen of Swords, Tessa
becomes a vision of hope for the people who live in her long oppressed town.

THE ROUGH RIDERS (1958)

In a
pre-automobile version of Route 66, ex-Union
Captain Jim Flagg (Kent Taylor), former Confederate Lieutenant Colin Kirby (Jan
Merlin), and former Union Sergeant Buck Sinclair (Peter Whitney) travel the
post-Civil War West together on the lookout for trouble and badguys. Flagg is
the gallant authority figure; Kirby is jaunty and self-confident; and Sinclair
is an imposing, jack-of-all-trades, out of the Tennessee hills. In one episode,
the Confederate Kirby gives a brief explanation of why a Reb is travelling with
two Yanks by revealing the two Union vets saved his life. This was a buddy show
with the three leads seeming to genuinely like one another, which was by far
the biggest draw of the show.

THE ROY ROGERS SHOW (1951)

The announcer
at the top of every episode described the show best—The Roy Rogers Show, starring Roy Rogers, King of the Cowboys; Trigger,
his golden palomino; and Dale Evans, Queen of the West; with Pat Brady, his
comical sidekick; and Roy's wonder dog, Bullet. With all those players in
place there was still room for Dale Evans’ horse Buttermilk, and Pat Brady’s
seemingly possessed Jeep Nellybelle. Roy owned the Double D Ranch outside the
fictional Mineral City. Dale Evans was the proprietress of the Eureka Café and
Hotel. Pat Brady was Roy’s hapless sidekick, employed at the Eureka Café as
Dale Evans’ cook. All of the above blended—without explanation—traditional 19th
century cowboys into a strange mash-up with 20th century automobiles,
telephones, and electric lighting. In stories aimed at a juvenile audience, Roy,
Dale, Pat, and their collection of celebrity animals and Jeep regularly rescued
the weak and helpless from Snidely Whiplash type villains, all the while
teaching lessons on gun safety or natural resources, and delivering the
occasional (standard for the day) Christian message.

SHANE (1966)

Based on the 1949
book and the 1953 movie, Shane (a pre-Kung Fu David Carradine) was a former nomadic
gunslick who sometimes skirted the edges of the law. The show was mostly
remarkable for its revered ancestry, but lost the point of the original source
material, which was Shane leaving at the end. In the series, Shane tries to put
his past behind him by accepting a job as a hired-hand at a the Starett family
farm, which is owned by a comely widow (Jill Ireland), her young son
(Christopher Shea), and her father (Tom Tully). For no apparent reason the
series spelled Starett with only one ‘r’ instead of two as in the book and
movie.

Before long,
Shane finds himself having to deal with Rufe Ryker (Bert Freed), a ruthless anti-sodbuster
land baron determined to either drive the widow Starett off her land, or if
worse comes to worse, marry her. The series only lasted seventeen episodes as
it was scheduled on Saturday nights against the ratings blockbuster that was
The Jackie Gleason Show.

SHOTGUN SLADE (1959)

At a time
when TV crime shows were beginning to chip away at the popularity of the TV
Western, Shotgun Slade (Scott Brady) made an attempt to have it both ways.
Instead of a lawman, bounty hunter, or drifting cowpoke, Slade was one of the West’s
first independent private eyes. As such, he hired out much like a Wild West
version of the two-fisted private eye shows, such as Peter Gunn, which were becoming popular. Slade also shared another
trait with Peter Gunn. Instead of a
traditional Western theme and soundtrack, Shotgun
Slade featured a modern jazz score, which was anachronistic, but certainly
set the show apart from other TV Westerns.

And then
there was the reason for the shotgun part of Shotgun Slade. Like Wanted:
Dead or Alive and The Rifleman, Shotgun Slade had a gimmick gun—a combination
shotgun with an upper and lower barrel. The lower barrel fired a 12-guage
shotgun shell, while the top barrel fired a .32 caliber rifle bullet. The idea
was this gave Shotgun Slade the
ability to hit targets at both close range and at distance with the same gun.
The logic of this might be shaky, but the firearm was definitely as cool as the
show’s soundtrack.

STONEY BURKE (1962)

This moody,
nori-tinged, rodeo drama channels the bleak message of the movie Lonely Are the Brave, in which the last
of the cowboys finds his way of life disappearing. The quietly noble Stoney
Burke (Jack Lord) tries to stop the process as he competes to become the world
champion saddle bronc rider and win rodeo’s Golden Buckle. A couple of Stoney’s
pals come along for the bumpy ride. The shifty, but loveable Ves Painter
(Warren Oates) often comes close to stealing the show, while E.J. Stocker
(Bruce Dern) is more downbeat.

However, what
makes this show so special happened behind the scenes. Producer/creator Leslie
Stevens wrote all the earliest and clearly understood the characters and the
underlying themes of the show. Conrad Hall's stunningly beautiful black and
white photography gave the show a look unlike any other TV Western of the same
time period. And there was also Dominic Frontiere's rousing theme music, which
never failed to get a response from viewers.

TALES OF THE TEXAS RANGERS (1955)

In a cool time
altering twist on the standard TV Western, Texas Rangers Jace Pearson (Willard
Parker) and Clay Morgan (Harry Lauter) would be in 1840s Texas one week, but
find themselves in a modern day setting the next week. This was a unique
dramaticdevice, which viewers appeared
to accept and take in stride. The show was also possibly the first TV or movie
Western to feature the walk—where all
the characters join up to walk into danger together. This has been seen over
and over again in every Western from Tombstone to The Wild Bunch. Each episode
of Tales of the Texas Rangers would start
with one Ranger walking down the street only to be joined by another, and
another, until he had a whole company with him by the end of the opening walk.
The show would end by reversing this scene.

TOMBSTONE TERRITORY (1957)

In this
respectable second tier TV Western, tough Sheriff Clay Hollister (Pat Conway) keeps
the law in Tombstone, Arizona—the Town
Too Tough To Die—with the support of Harris Claibourne (Richard Eastham)
editor of the local The Tombstone Epitaph
newspaper. Each episode would begin with a voice over narration by Claibourne stating
the evening’s episode was based on a story covered by his newspaper.

TRACKDOWN (1957)

Introduced on
an episode of Zane Grey Theater, Texas
Ranger Hoby Gilman (Robert Culp) traveled the West tracking down wanted men. While
some episodes were inspired by the files of the Rangers, Hoby eventually
settled down and acted as the sheriff of the fictional town of Porter, Texas. He
would still occasionally venture out into the wider Lone Star State to pursue
fugitives, but most of the episodes became town centered. Trackdown carried the endorsement of both the State of Texas and
the Texas Rangers, dual accolades no other television series was ever granted. Trackdown is also known for an episode
where Steve McQueen appeared as bounty hunter Josh Randall for the first time
before being spun-off into its own show, Wanted:
Dead or Alive.

26 MEN (1957)

Based on real
life events, 26 Men acted as a bridge
as TV Westerns transformed from kid friendly Westerns—The Roy Rogers show, Hopalong
Cassidy—and adult oriented Westerns such as Have Gun Will Travel. Led by Captain Thomas H. Rynning (Tristram
Coffin) and Ranger Clint Travis (Kelo Henderson), the 26 Arizona Rangers were
expert horsemen, trackers and marksmen. Because the force was small and their territory
huge, they were equipped with the best horses and the most modern weapons. The
show also had a very cool theme song with a driving beat...This is the story of 26 men who rode the Arizona territory; 26 men who
lived to ride again rode out to answer duty's call; 26 men who lived to fight
again rode out for the right and the liberty of all...

WHIPLASH (1959)

Set in the
1860s, Whiplash is a kangaroo Western (filmed in Australia) in which
Christopher Cobb (Peter Graves) founds and runs Australia's first stagecoach
line, Cobb and Co. Cobb did not carry a pistol, but he efficiently used a
stockwhip to settle disputes. The series is mostly notable for two of its
writers—Gene Roddenberry and Harry Julian Fink.

YANCY DERRINGER (1958)

A former
Confederate Army captain, Derringer (Jock Mahoney), now a gentleman adventurer
and gambler, returns to New Orleans three years after the end of the Civil War.
Widely respected in New Orleans society as a southerner who never surrendered,
Derringer is recruited by the Federal City Administrator, John Colton, to work
as a secret agent answering directly to Colton. The series was based on a 1938
short story about a destitute Southern aristocrat and troublemaker written by
Richard Sale, one of the highest-paid pulp writers of the era.

THE YOUNG RIDERS (1989)

Fictionalized
account of a group of young Pony Express riders—some younger versions of
legendary Western figures—based at the Sweetwater Station in the Nebraska
Territory during the years leading up to the American Civil War. The taskmaster
is Aloysius Teaspoon Hunter (Anthony Zerbe), a former Texas Ranger and one of
the few survivors of the Battle of the Alamo. Louise Lou McCloud (Yvonne Suhor)
impersonates a man so she can join the riders, but The Kid (Ty Miller), a
soft-spoken southerner, finds her out and begins to fall in love with her.
Complications ensue.